Fabric and garment clip

ABSTRACT

A clip for gripping and retaining a substantial range of thicknesses of fabrics and garments is provided, the clip being of unitary structure fabricated from a resiliently deformable material and comprising a generally U-shaped crosshead, a long leg extending horizontally from one side of the crosshead and a short leg extending from the other side of the crosshead angularly disposed toward the long leg with the legs and the crosshead being in a common plane, each of the legs being of irregular contour within the plane and having alternating divergent and convergent sections with respect to center lines passing through the legs. The irregular contours of said legs are preferably such as to dispose sections thereof adjacent the leg ends in parallel relation for linear engagement with opposed fabric surfaces when said legs have been flexed slightly apart, and the irregular contour of said legs further being such that, as the legs are flexed beyond said position to provide parallel leg sections in accommodating increased thicknesses of fabric, there will continuously be at least one point of fabric contact by one leg between at least two spaced points of fabric contact by the other leg until the fabric thickness exceeds the inner diameter of said crosshead.

United States I Patent 1 Merfeld Q [4 1 Oct. 23, 11973 FABRIC AND GARMENT CLIP [75] Inventor: Kurt W. Merfeld, Manhasset, NY.

[73] Assignee: Kunreuther and Merfeld, New 1 York, 22 Filed: Oct. 2,1972

[21] Appl. No.: 293,820

[52] [1.8. CI. 24/255 TV [51] Int. Cl A44b 21/00 [58] Field of Search 24/49 C, 67.9, 137 R, 24/138 R, 255 TV, 255 H, 255 GP, 255 G, 255 P, 255 D, 259 FF, 259 GC, 259 HC, 259 PF, 261HC, 261 G, 261 GC, 261 PC, 261GF [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,528,454 3/1925 Taggart et al. 24/259 HC UX 2,614,570 10/1952 Hall 24/255 H X 3,119,163 1/1964 Merfeld.. 24/255 TV 3,298,073 1/1967 Merfeld 24/255 TV Primary ExaminerDonald A. Griffin Attorney-J-loward E. Thompson, Jr.

[57] ABSTRACT A clip for gripping and retaining a substantial range of thicknesses of fabrics and garments is provided, the clip being of unitary structure fabricated from a resiliently deformable material and comprising a generally U-shaped crosshead, a long leg extending horizontally from one side of the crosshead and a short leg extending from the other side of the crosshead angularly disposed toward the long leg with the legs and the crosshead being in a common plane, each of the legs being of irregular contour within the plane and having alternating divergent and convergent sections with respect to center lines passing through the legs.

The irregular contours of said legs are preferably such as to dispose sections thereof adjacent the leg ends in parallel relation for linear engagement with opposed fabric surfaces when said legs have been flexed slightly apart, and the irregular contour of said legs further being such that, as the legs are flexed beyond said position to provide parallel leg sections in accommodating increased thicknesses of fabric, there will continuously be at least one point of fabric contact by one leg between at least two spaced points of fabric contact by the other leg until the fabric thickness exceeds the inner diameter of said crosshead.

9 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures 12 19b l1 5 20b 20 (1" 21b v FABRIC AND GARMENT CLIP This invention relates to a'clip for gripping and retaining fabrics and garments. The clip is of unitary but irregularly contoured structure and is resiliently deformable so that one-sized clip is capable of gripping and retaining fabrics and garments over a wide range of thicknesses.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The use of clips for gripping and retaining fabrics and garments is well known. Generally, these clips have been manufactured from light-weight metals and plasties that are resilient and deformable to insure that they firmly engage fabrics, garments and other items inserted in them. These clips are of a generally U-shaped configuration having elongaged legs between which the article to be gripped and retained is inserted. Hereto fore, many of these clips provided only single point contact of each of the legs with opposed surfaces of the articles to be gripped and retained. In addition, the flexibility of these clips has been limited due to their structure thereby requiring a number of different sized clips on hand for different thickness of fabrics and garments. The prior art relating to these clips can generally be found in class 24 and more specifically in subclasses ll, 255 and 255X. Exemplary of such prior art clips is my prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,298,073.

THE INVENTION It has now been found that the shortcomings associated with prior art clips can be overcome by providing a clip of unitary structure fabricated from a resiliently deformable material and which generally comprises a U-shaped crosshead, a long leg extending horizontally from one side of the crosshead, and a short leg extending from the other side of the crosshead angularly disposed toward said long leg, each of the legs and the crosshead being'in a common plane and each of the legs beingof irregular contour within the plane, said legs having alternating divergent and convergent sections with respect to a center line passing through each of the legs. Although the clip can be of uniform cross sectional dimension, it is preferably tapered in the transverse dimension from the crosshead to the tips of the legs and, in an especially preferred embodiment, one or more of the irregularly contoured sections in each leg is further tapered within the plane of the clip.

The clip of this invention can be readily molded from suitable plastic materials so that it exhibits resiliency and deformability. These properties, along with the novel structure of the clip, enable it to grip and retain fabrics of varying thicknesses such as from one which spreads the legs thereof only slightly apart to one having a thickness slightly larger-than the diameter of the crosshead. Hence, one-sized clip can be utilized to grip and retain fabrics and garments over a wide range of thicknesses. Generally, the thickness range which onesized clip of the invention is capable of gripping and retaining runs from that where sections in each leg of the clip are disposed in parallel relation to each other with portions of the inner surfaces of the legs in linear engagement with opposed surfaces of an article inserted therebetween, to one where the thickness of the article is such as to dispose the legs so that at least a portion of one leg is in linear contact with one surface of the article and the other leg contacts the opposed surface of the fabric at a point intermediate the ends of the linear area of contact of the opposed leg, to the condition where increased thickness of the article further spreads and flexes the legs apart to provide at least two spaced points of contact by one leg on one surface of the article and at least a single point of contact by the other leg with the opposed fabric surface intermediate the spaced points of contact of the first leg.

The novel features of the clip of the invention will become more apparent when considered in light of the following description of the accompanying drawing wherein the various figures illustrate a preferred embodiment thereof and wherein;

FIG. 1 is a side elevation view of the clip of the invention illustrating the overall configuration of the clip and the relationship of its various components to each other;

FIG. 2 is a view taken through line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 1 showing the relationship of the clip components when it is used to clip relatively thin layers of fabric; and,

FIG. 4 is also a view similar to FIG. 1 showing the relationship of the clip components when it is used to clip relatively thick layers of fabric.

Referring first to FIG. 1, the clip of the invention comprises a generally U-shaped crosshead 10 which, in the embodiment shown, is semicircular. Extending from' one side of the crosshead 10 is a generally horizontal long leg 11 while a short leg 12, angularly disposed toward long leg ll, extends from the other side of crosshead 10.

As described earlier, the fabric clip is molded from a suitable plastic material and, when it is released hot from the mold, it has the general configuration shown by the dotted lines in FIG. 1. Upon cooling, however, some contraction takes place and the clip shrinks to the configuration shown in full lines in FIG. 1. To remove the freshly formed hot clip cleanly from the mold, a plurality of knock-out or ejection pins are employed and the points at which they contact the sides of the clip upon ejection are indicated in dotted lines by reference numeral 13.

The configurations of legs 11 and 12 and the relation ship of their various sections are described hereinafter with respect to center lines AA and B-B which pass through legs 11 and 12, respectively, and which are shown by dot-dash lines. In each instance, center lines AA and B-B define a plane passing through the tips 11a and 12a of legs 11 and 12 at one end and through the mid-points of the extremities of the are describing crosshead 10. Since the crosshead 10 in this embodiment is semicircular, these mid-points lie on the plane of the diameter C-C of the crosshead.

With respect to center line A'-A and commencing at the point where it intersects line CC, it can be seen that leg 11 comprises a first divergent section 14, a first convergent section 15, a second divergent section 16 which is generally parallel to center line AA and to section 14, and a shallow, S-shaped, end section 17 whose configuration is divergent, convergent and divergent before terminating at rounded tip Ila. Preferably, section 15 is about one-half the length of section 14 and section 16 is about twice the length of section 14.

The juncture points along leg 11 at which the sections change from divergent to convergent and viceversa are identified by reference numerals 14a, 15a and 16a along the inner surface of leg 11 and by reference numerals 14b, 15b and 16b along the outer surface of leg 11.

With respect to center line BB, and commencing at the point where it intersects line CC, short leg 12 comprises a first divergent section 18, a first convergent section 19, a second divergent section which is generally parallel to center line B-B, a second convergent section 21, and a third divergent section 22 which is generally parallel to section 20 and center line A-A and which terminates at divergent rounded tip 12a. Preferably, sections 18, 21 and 22 are about threefourths the length of section 20 and section 19 is about one-fourth the length of section 20.

The juncture points along leg 12 at which the sections change from divergent to convergent and viceversa are identified by reference numerals 18a, 19a, 20a and 21a along the inner surface of leg 12 and by reference numerals 18b, 19b, 20b and 21b along the outer surface of leg 12.

As shown in FIG. 2, the cross section of the clip is of double tapered configuration from a widest point 23, which generally corresponds to the parting line of the molds or dies used to fashion the clip. The shallow, convergent taper extending to upper surface 10a is formed in one mold or die part, while the deep convergent taper extending to the bottom surface 10b is formed by a second mold or die, and the slight depression 13 shown in the surface 10b is formed by a knockout pin facilitating removal of the formed clip from the latter mold or die part.

The general cross-sectional configuration shown in FIG. 2 extends throughout the clip, but with gradual reduction in the side-to-side or transverse dimension when moving from the crosshead 10 to the tips 11a and 12a. This reduction in transverse dimension is preferably accomplished by providing a gradual taper in the plane of the clip in sections 14 and 16 of leg 11 and in sections 18 and 20 of the leg 12. In other words, the dimensional change takes place through slight tapering of the first and second divergent sections of each leg, and it is considered that providing these dimensional changes in these divergent sections aids in the structural adaptations of the clip to engage different thicknesses of fabric as hereinafter described.

Generally, a fabric or garment of any thickness can be inserted between legs 11 and 12 and be gripped and retained by them up to one having a thickness slightly greater than the inner diameter of crosshead 10. However, optimum gripping by the clip is achieved with fabrics having thicknesses which spread legs 11 and 12 from the extent shown in FIG. 3 to that shown in FIG. 4. Hence, optimum gripping by the clip occurs when a fabric is in contact with a plurality of points along both legs of the clip as shown in FIG. 3 up to where the fabric is in contact with at least two spaced points on one leg and one point on the other leg as shown in FIG. 4.

For example, in FIG. 3 a garment or fabric comprising two plies 24 is shown inserted between legs 11 and 12. The thickness of the article 24 is such that legs 11 and 12 are spread apart to the extent that section 16 of leg 11 and section 22 of leg 12 are essentially parallel and are both in contact with the outer surfaces 24a and 24b, respectively, of article 24 along a multiplicity of points, or linear areas of contact, on the inner surfaces of sections 16 and 22.

As the thickness of article 24 increases to the point where the contacting surfaces of sections 16 and 22 are no longer parallel, it will be noted that point 21a of leg 12 is disposed between points and 16a on leg 11 so that the fabric will be engaged by point 21a and linearly spaced portions of section 16 of leg 11.

As further spreading of the legs caused by an increase of the thickness of article 24 approaches the configuration shown in FIG. 4, the surface of section 16 of leg 11 lifts away from the article 24 and a second point 19a on leg 12 comes into engagement with the article 24 so that the primary contact of leg 11 is concentrated at point 15a which is located between the spaced contact points 19a and 21a of leg 12.

Thus it can be seen that one sized clip can accommodate a wide range of fabric or garment thickhcsses while providing spaced point contacts leg thicker fabrics with at least one leg and at least single point contact of the fabric by the other leg intermediate the spaced points of the first leg. When the thickness of a garment or fabric is less than about that shown in FIG. 3 or greater than about that shown in FIG. 4, it is recommended that the next smaller sized clip or next larger sized clip be used. Although garments and fabrics having thicknesses somewhat greater than that shown in FIG. 4 can still be gripped by the clip, it should be appreciated that increased thicknesses will spread the ends 11a and 12a of the clip farther apart. This is objectionable as it can then lead to easy, inadvertent displacement of the garment or fabric from the clip.

Various changes and modifications in the fabric clip herein described may occur to those skilled in the art, and to the extent that such changes and modifications are embraced by the appended claims, it is to be understood that they constitute part of the present invention.

What is claimed is:

l. A clip for retaining fabrics and garments therein, said clip comprising a unitary body of resiliently deformable material having a U-shaped crosshead, a long leg extending horizontally from one side of said crosshead, and, a short leg extending from the other side of said crosshead and angularly disposed toward said long leg, said legs and said crosshead being in a common plane, each of said legs being of irregular contour within said plane and having, starting from said crosshead, sections which are divergent, then convergent, and then divergent with respect to the center lines passing through said legs, and the angularly disposed leg having further convergent and then divergent sections in general alignment with the second divergent section of said long leg, such that fabrics and garments having thickness up to that about equal to the inner diameter of said crosshead can be gripped and retained between the legs thereof.

2. A clip as defined in claim 1 wherein the irregular contours of said legs are such as to dispose sections thereof adjacent the leg ends in parallel relation for linear engagement with opposed fabric surfaces when said legs have been flexed slightly apart.

3. A clip as defined in claim 1, wherein the irregular contours of said legs are such as to dispose sections thereof adjacent the leg ends in parallel relation for linear engagement with opposed fabric surfaces when said legs have been flexed slightly apart, and the irregular contour of said legs further being such that, as the legs are flexed beyond said position to provide parallel leg sections in accommodating increased thicknesses of fabric, there will continuously be at least one point of fabric contact by one leg between at least two spaced points of fabric contact by the other leg until the fabric thickness exceeds the inner diameter of said crosshead.

4. A clip as defined in claim 3, wherein throughout the major portion of said flexing to accommodate different fabric thicknesses the fabric is engaged by an elongated section of said long leg, and a point on said short leg intermediate the ends of said elongated section.

5. A clip as defined in claim 1 wherein said center line of said long leg passes through the mid-point of the tip of said long leg and through the mid-point where said center line intersects a plane describing the end of the arc of said crosshead, the configuration of said long leg, beginning at the point of said intersection, comprising a first divergent section, a first convergent section, a second divergent section which is generally parallel to said long leg center line, and a shallow, S-shaped end section having a divergent-convergent-divergent configuration ending in a rounded tip; and, said center line of said short leg passes through the mid-point of the tip of said short leg and through the mid-point where said center line intersects the plane describing the end of the arc of said crosshead, the configuration of said short leg, beginning at the point of said intersection, comprising a first divergent section, a first convergent section, a second divergent section which is generally parallel to said short leg center line, a second convergent section, and a third divergent section which is generally parallel to said second divergent section and to said long leg center line and which ends in a divergent rounded tip.

6. A clip as defined in claim 5 wherein said crosshead is a semicircle; the second divergent section of said long leg is about twice the length of the first divergent section of said long leg and the first convergent section of said long leg is about one-half the length of the first divergent section of said long leg; and, the first divergent, the second convergent, and the third divergent sections of said short leg are about three-fourths the length of the second divergent section of said short leg and the first convergent section of said short leg is about one fourth the length of the second divergent section of said short leg.

7. A clip as defined in claim 5 wherein said clip is of uniform, double taper cross section.

8. A clip as defined in claim 7 wherein the transverse dimension of said clip legs gradually narrows from said crosshead to the tips thereof.

9. A clip as defined in claim 8 wherein said gradually narrowing transverse dimension is provided by further taper of the first and second divergent sections in each of said legs within the plane of the said clip. 

1. A clip for retaining fabrics and garments therein, said clip comprising a unitary body of resiliently deformable material having a U-shaped crosshead, a long leg extending horizontally from one side of said crosshead, and, a short leg extending from the other side of said crosshead and angularly disposed toward said long leg, said legs and said crosshead being in a common plane, each of said legs being of irregular contour within said plane and having, starting from said crosshead, sections which are divergent, then convergent, and then divergent with respect to the center lines passing through said legs, and the angularly disposed leg having further convergent and then divergent sections in general alignment with the second divergent section of said long leg, such that fabrics and garments having thickness up to that about equal to the inner diameter of said crosshead can be gripped and retained between the legs thereof.
 2. A clip as defined in claim 1 wherein the irregular contours of said legs are such as to dispose sections thereof adjacent the leg ends in parallel relation for linear engagement with opposed fabric surfaces when said legs have been flexed slightly apart.
 3. A clip as defined in claim 1, wherein the irregular contours of said legs are such as to dispose sections thereof adjacent the leg ends in parallel relation for linear engagement with opposed fabric surfaces when said legs have been flexed slightly apart, and the irregular contour of said legs further being such that, as the legs are flexed beyond said position to provide parallel leg sections in accommodating increased thicknesses of fabric, there will continuously be at least one point of fabric contact by one leg between at least two spaceD points of fabric contact by the other leg until the fabric thickness exceeds the inner diameter of said crosshead.
 4. A clip as defined in claim 3, wherein throughout the major portion of said flexing to accommodate different fabric thicknesses the fabric is engaged by an elongated section of said long leg, and a point on said short leg intermediate the ends of said elongated section.
 5. A clip as defined in claim 1 wherein said center line of said long leg passes through the mid-point of the tip of said long leg and through the mid-point where said center line intersects a plane describing the end of the arc of said crosshead, the configuration of said long leg, beginning at the point of said intersection, comprising a first divergent section, a first convergent section, a second divergent section which is generally parallel to said long leg center line, and a shallow, S-shaped end section having a divergent-convergent-divergent configuration ending in a rounded tip; and, said center line of said short leg passes through the mid-point of the tip of said short leg and through the mid-point where said center line intersects the plane describing the end of the arc of said crosshead, the configuration of said short leg, beginning at the point of said intersection, comprising a first divergent section, a first convergent section, a second divergent section which is generally parallel to said short leg center line, a second convergent section, and a third divergent section which is generally parallel to said second divergent section and to said long leg center line and which ends in a divergent rounded tip.
 6. A clip as defined in claim 5 wherein said crosshead is a semicircle; the second divergent section of said long leg is about twice the length of the first divergent section of said long leg and the first convergent section of said long leg is about one-half the length of the first divergent section of said long leg; and, the first divergent, the second convergent, and the third divergent sections of said short leg are about three-fourths the length of the second divergent section of said short leg and the first convergent section of said short leg is about one fourth the length of the second divergent section of said short leg.
 7. A clip as defined in claim 5 wherein said clip is of uniform, double taper cross section.
 8. A clip as defined in claim 7 wherein the transverse dimension of said clip legs gradually narrows from said crosshead to the tips thereof.
 9. A clip as defined in claim 8 wherein said gradually narrowing transverse dimension is provided by further taper of the first and second divergent sections in each of said legs within the plane of the said clip. 